Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Dunolly archaeology and a possible dead 'un on our land

Well.
The men folk meandered their way home down the Calder (as the landslip at Riddles Creek put paid to trains tootling along the tracks and had the buses out in force) and what a lovely surprise they brought me.
Feral geek kid poked and prodded and did, indeed, find further remains of the mudbrick house on our land.
And a possible bush grave judging by the organised round shape of quartz rocks out-lining a 6 foot long area similar to the other bush graves we saw on our recent history tour back in September.
He also found a shedload of pottery shards on the surface of an earth bank near the house remains; without digging he's managed to collect quite a large and varied lot from just off the surface of the ground.
You know what these means, don't you?Don't you?!
Remember all the archaeology digs he undertook through the backyard here?
The months of holes getting deeper, wider, sprawling ever closer to undermining the house/fence/fruit trees/gazebo/omgisthattheseptictankandnotanotherskeletondon'tcomenearmewithTHATthingyougrottychild.... you know.
So.
3.6 acres of land.
Sitting there.
Empty.Except for the gorgeous Arabian mare plodding about on it.
Where the flippin' heck am I going to get a leash long enough to keep him from digging to China???!

Jayne, You've peaked my interest. What is a bush grave? And the shards -- have they been identified as to dates, use etc. Lots of questions about the sites -- would love to read a post or posts about that aspect of the feral digs. -- barbara.

Yep, Brian, found out there used to be a pub at the end of our street, roughly 3 mins stumble from door to door as the spirit takes you ;)

LOLYay Lavender :) The more the merrier!

Barbara, I'll post up the photos of the bush graves soon. They are European bush burials with typical mounds of earth marked out by quartz rocks (quartz being the common rock found on the gold fields), usually oval-ish in shape with some marked by larger rock piles (like a cairn) to denote a burial, most don't carry any identifying inscriptions (lack of carving tools and/or illiterate people doing the burying).

The shards of pottery are most likely mid to late 19th and early 20th century cheap, everyday mass produced stoneware and china. Just intersting to note such a large, varied amount in one small area which could indicate a long period of habitation on our land.

Hi! I've failed to find a thing on my semi-rural property, even though I've dug and dug and dug, yes they call me, The mole of blah blah blah, I dig so much.

I once dug up my backyard in an endeavour to put in a pond, but seeing my father-in-law feared falling in it, yes, by the time I had almost finished he could only see the top of my head, I filled it in to satisfy all heads, mores the pity, I readon I could have reached China if given half a chance.